Woodside Petroleum boss Peter Coleman is pushing ahead to diversify beyond Australia, bidding for deep water gas fields off Cyprus where the company has plans to develop a liquefied natural gas plant.
The move was revealed recently by the Cyprus Government and confirmed last week by Woodside’s CEO at the Australian Petroleum Production Exploration Association meeting in Adelaide.
Despite the early stage of development and the chance of other bidders winning the deal, the Woodside chief, who has been in post for 12 months, was keen to talk up its prospects.
The Woodside bid is part of a joint venture with Israel’s Delek energy company, and the gas field could be put into production quickly if seismic work and drilling were successful, said Mr Coleman, who does not expect development to be over an extended period.
“The good thing about it,” the Woodside chief told reporters, “is it’s in a developed part of the world, there’s no maritime boundary disputes, so from the point of view of development, it’s how quickly we can prove up the field and agree with the Cyprus government on moving forward.”
The move follows an announcement earlier this year that Woodside would change former chief executive Don Voelte’s strategy of focusing almost entirely on Australian development.